Parades and Playtime. Hailey is 8 weeks old.

Dear Nathan, Hannah and Hailey,

This weekend started off with our monthly family service night at church. As a group we packed 6 shoe boxes full of gifts for kids who live in poverty. Then, your Uncle Timmy arrived to spend a couple of days with us. 

Saturday morning, we got out and hiked a section of the newly opened violet crown trail. The weather was perfect and the terrain was interesting. After walking for about 30-40 minutes, we packed into the car and headed downtown to go see the annual Chuy's Blue Santa Parade. Its a great charity event because people bring toys to donate. While Nathan pretty much understands how we help others by giving toys, Hannah kept asking, "When is Santa going to bring presents for me?" (Emphasis on "me".)

As you can see from the picture, we are all in shorts and t-shirts. It's still quite warm in Texas, with an occasional day that dips down to high 60's. 

Hailey pretty much missed the entire parade, except for the part when the marching band came through. You couldn't miss them.

 With Uncle Timmy here, we made sure we put him to good use. He helped you guys set up the LGB trains,

 And also helped with setting up the christmas lights outside

 And since Daddy just finished brewing up a batch of a dark, oatmeal stout,

 we got Uncle Timmy to help you guys put bottle caps on the bottles.

 You were both very sad when he had to leave. Nathan even commented, "He's a pretty good guy." after we dropped him off.

So Hailey, you went through a growth spurt in the last few days. Yesterday, you seemed to be insatiable, and you slept horribly. The only way I could get you to take a decent nap was to hold you in my arms. Luckily we had a frozen lasagna in the freezer, otherwise we would've been eating toast and jam with frozen peas for dinner. This morning, things seem to be a bit better, so we'll see if you make a big growth leap in the next few days.

 See this? Yeah, maybe you can try to do more of this, for longer stretches of time... OK?

I had ordered this "as seen on TV" screen door for the garage door. I'm really loving it because I can make dinner while keeping an eye on you guys while you play outside. Definitely a win purchase! 

 And before I leave, I'm just going to post this adorable picture or Hailey and her friend, Mateo.

Hailey, you still hate sitting in the car seat, although if i put you in there drowsy, you will actually sleep in it. You really love when I sing the "Ittsy bittsy spider," and you also love sitting in a arm bath. I actually clean up the kitchen while you happily sit. How's that for a mom hack?
Thanksgiving is tomorrow so I'm sure we'll have lots of things to experience and eat. Maybe I'll do a special interview post about things we are thankful for.

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy

Kind of a quiet week

Dear Kids, 

Since our last post, a cold (and perhaps allergies for Nathan) have overcome you all one by one. Hannah was coughing, Hailey has a stuffy nose, and Nathan has exercise induced asthma, which comes with allergies, or being sick. So, this week has been a pretty tame one filled with snuggles and activities at home. 

I had Daddy take this picture of me cuddling with Hailey because I don't think I have any pictures of me cuddling any of you when you were that small. Since we spend so much of our time like this, I wanted something to remind me how small you all once were. 

Just the other day, you took a 45 minute nap in the swing. This is something you have not done since you were just a few days old. You still prefer to sleep swaddled up. 

 Close up of sweet sleeping baby face. Aww. Too cute!

Daddy snapped this picture of you, Nathan. You were pretending to be yoshi driving a race car. It took you lots of negotiating (and tantrums by both parties) for Hannah to let you borrow her skates so you could try this move. I don't know if this is something that most kids do, but this is exactly the kind of ridiculousness that I would come up with as a kid. 

 Sorry, another picture of sleeping baby... couldn't resist.

 One day, I decided to bring back Michael Jackson and we danced to all of our favorite MJ songs. This time, instead of sitting on the side and being a spectator, Hannah was dancing too. Nathan, you really expressed how much you don't like to lose and you didn't want me to help Hannah out so you could get a high score. [sigh] we are still working on you being ok with losing (at least not throw a big tantrum about it).

 The weather has absolutely been wonderful lately. The mosquitos are the major deterrent from us just being outside all day, but we just lather up with bug spray (or long princess dresses) and brave them.

 Hannah, you still are absolutely in love with Hailey. You get so excited when we let you hold her.

 Hailey, generally you sleep pretty well during the day, but after dinner time, you can be quite unpredictable. Sometimes you are hungry all the time, sometimes you are tired, but you don't know it, and sometimes you just need to be cuddled. Daddy's shoulders are the best.

 Today, Nathan and Hannah, you two had your Thanksgiving program at school. You all sang a few songs together with your friends. All the Pilgrim and Native American costumes were adorable.

 And the day ended off with the turkey hokey pokey.

Well, uncle Timmy comes this weekend to visit and we have Thanksgiving coming up. Lots to do. Until next week,
Love,
Mommy

Hailey is 6 Weeks and Enjoying the Fall Weather

Hailey is now 9 pounds and 9 oz. as of 6 weeks of age. She has gained just a little bit over 2 pounds from her birth weight. Her latch for breastfeeding is now pretty good, as I only have to flip her upper lip out about 30% of the time. And our feeding sessions last no more than 30 minutes now. Yay!
This week Hailey is sleeping closer to 2 hour stretches at night. I sure do miss the 3 hour long ones, but since I'm expecting this (and know that all this is temporary) it is not as bad this time around.

Thanks to our doctor, who told us about the 6th "S" of baby calming: Simethicone. We started using it last week and immediately noticed a difference in how well she sleeps. As long as I hold her for about 7-9 minutes after feeding before putting her down at night, she will stay asleep. She is more prone to gas and spitting up now a days.

Most of the time I can put Hailey down drowsy and then pat her to sleep, but sometimes I really have to just nurse her to sleep (especially on days where she doesn't get to take good naps).

Here are the many (cute) looks of Hailey.

She absolutely hates being left alone for more than 3 minutes and absolutely dislikes being in the car seat. She will cry and cry the moment her bottom touches the seat. Car rides are pretty miserable these days. She loves being in the baby balboa sling and will fall asleep easily when being carried around in it. However, after being in it too long, she is very good about letting you know that she is sick and tired of being cramped in there.

Dear Nathan and Hannah,
You two continue to adjust to being big brother and sister pretty well. I think the fact that you both have each other to play with is a huge help. While Hannah is starting to show a bit of defiance, we figured out that you were just needing a little bit more attention from me.

Even with such a big couch, you guys like to sit right next to each other. 

 Since Hailey has fallen into a more predictable schedule, we've been able to do more things outside the house. On Saturday, Daddy took you two to Home Depot to craft. Hailey and I stayed home to nap and clean the house.

 Hannah, you did a lot of the project by yourself, but Daddy still had to help you some...which is totally normal for a 3 year old.

Nathan, you were able to do the whole project by yourself and you proudly told me so as soon as you walked in the door.

 Afterwards, we attended the fall festival at AMD, Daddy's work. The even was not as cool as last year, but still fun. You both got something painted. Hannah, you were brave to tell the lady what you wanted all by yourself.

 Nathan, you was still coughing, so you had to settle for a bat on your arm.

 This may be the first picture I have of all three of you together. This makes my heart swell with joy.

At some point, we all took a group picture with the CEO of the company. In fact, she is standing right behind you two!

Photo Credit: AMD Twitter 

And on top of the parking garage was a giant Foosball game. Hannah, you wanted to play at first, but when the game got started, you quickly ran out.  

 Nathan, you stayed and were really proud of your team for winning (despite you kicking the ball the wrong way for the first few minutes).

On Sunday, while Nathan went to Chinese school, the girls and I went to Michaels. They had their crafting even going on again and Hannah got to make slime again.

For those of you who don't see me often, you may or may not know how obsessed I am with the Instant Pot - a pressure cooker that has changed my life. I often joke (actually, I'm kind of serious) and say that the 3 things that have changed my life are Jesus, the Instant Pot and Steve. Anyways, since I found out that when using the "Saute" function, the top of the pot does not get hot, Hannah, you've been able to help with cooking. This extra responsibility that you can handle has made you overly confident in your kitchen skills, as one day, you were convinced that you were ready to use the adult knives. You ended up cutting your finger just a bit, so now you've learned your lesson.

 You've gotten very stubborn these days (Like with the knife situation). A new phrase that you use is "I want to ___ but I don't want to ___."

• I want to go potty, but I don't want to go.
• I like this meal, but I don't.
• I do, but I don't (after we ask you a question). 

You have always been indecisive, always changing your mind, but this takes it to a whole new level! Hopefully this is just a phase and does not become a core part of your personality. 

Thursday last week, Hannah, your teachers talked to me after school about how glad they are to have you in their class. This made me cry tears of joy when I heard it. They said that you pick up on things really quickly so during craft time, or station time, they can just send you over to help a friend. So, with your tendency to be a little bit bossy, I hope you don't become too confident about being able to tell other people what to do. 

Nathan, you've been quite the crafter this week. You've assembled an entire wooden car all by yourself (and painted it to look like the one on the box) and made 2 ornaments out of perler beads. Your long attention span continues to amaze me. 

 Hannah, you must be going through a growth spurt because you seem to be always hungry. One day you asked me if you could have a giant apple (this is like the size of your stomach). I told you that it was too big and that maybe we could share. You insisted on eating it yourself. Considering it a battle not worth fighting, I let you have the apple. As you sat by Nathan, watching him play Mario Kart, you slowly chomped on the apple. I continued to prep dinner. After awhile, I walk over to check on you and your apple...you had eaten almost the entire thing down to the core!

I'm finding that I need to adjust the cooking portions because you two are now eating a lot more than you used to. I can't even imagine what it would be like when all three of you are full grown. At least you are not all boys (who I know can be voracious eaters).

I apologize about the late post this week. I originally wanted to wait for the results of Hailey and my 6 week check up (which by the way, we are all doing great), but then things got busy and when I finally had a chance to update last night, bed was calling out to me at 8:30. I was exhausted.

Bed calls to me now. Until next week!

Love,
Mommy

Hailey's First Smiles at Week 5 (almost) and Halloween Fun

Hailey might has had her first social smiles ever this morning. I know this because I was able to repeat getting her to smile several times throughout the day. Oh, she's also holding her head up pretty well. I am starting to see a silver lining in these rough newborn days. In my opinion, once they start smiling it all becomes just more rewarding. 

 The first of many monthly photos.

Dear Nathan and Hannah,
Lucky for grandma and grandpa, they got  to join in on the fun and join in our family themed trick-or-treating costumes. This year, we decided to do Mario kart. It was a tough choice between plants vs. zombies (which we may do next year and if we are ambitious enough, we may even host a trunk for the trunk or treat...imagine throwing "peas" at on-coming "zombies" that should be fun) and Mario Kart. Once we could convince Hannah to be princess Rosalina (which wasn't too difficult) since you already had the dress, it was decided.

 The weather forecast didn't look good, but during dinner, the rain stopped, so we quickly ate, got dressed and went out to go candy hunting. Hailey got hungry last minute, so I stayed behind to feed her while the rest of the crew went out.

According to Daddy, you two covered lots of ground. He said that he has never seen you run so fast. 20 minutes later, I hear it start to pour outside, so I grabbed a few umbrellas to go meet you all outside.

 When we got home, I expected maybe a dozen pieces of candy in each of your buckets, but instead, I was shocked to find the amount of candy you two were able to procure in such a short amount of time.

We dumped all of the candy in one pile and you two took turns claiming your favorite candies. It was interesting to see which ones you two picked up. Nathan picked skittles and lollipops. Hannah picked lollipops and smarties (which I don't think you've had before).

 Ok, a break from the candy for a bit. Austin opened a new fancy library downtown, so after grandma and grandpa arrived, we all drove downtown to go to the grand opening. The architecture was very impressive, but the children's area was nowhere as impressive as the libraries around grandma and grandpa.

 There were lots of cool reading nooks,

 including one outside.

 The book work sculptures around the building were interesting. Nathan wanted to take a picture in front of one. I think you were plotting to climb it, but I quickly squelched that idea.

 Ok, back to more candy seeking adventures. Every year our church hosts a trunk or treat. This year, we left chinese school a bit early so we could spend more time at the event. (In the past I was teaching, so we couldn't leave early). There were lots of cool trunks, but Nathan, you were focused on the sweets.

 Hannah, was set on getting a lollipop and threw a tantrum because the first few trunks that we visited did not have lollipops. We eventually found a trunk that was passing those sweets on a stick out.

 While we did trunk or treating, Daddy stood in line for the swings, which took forever. Eventually we got to the front of the line and both of you got on. I was a bit nervous that Hannah, you would not like it and cry to get off, but you were smiling the whole time. When Daddy first got in line I asked if you wanted to get on the swing and you told me, "No. I don't want to because it's too scary."  I guess at some point, you changed your mind. After you both got off, you told us that you wanted to do it again. 

 The highlight of the day for Nathan was cotton candy! You told me that it was the best part.

On Monday, Daddy took the day off and we packed up a picnic and went to go hike the greenbelt. Nathan pretty much complained about aching feet the whole way and Hannah, you were proud that you were not tired (even when Nathan was) except towards the end when you would sit down on any large rock that we came across. But in the end, you made it all by yourself without being carried.

 Hailey stayed asleep for most of the hike, except towards the end, you woke up and were hungry.

 On Halloween day, your school had a costume parade.

 And at the end of the day, you all had cake decorating parties along with some games.

In the afternoon, we decorated 2 pumpkins that grandma and grandpa bought from the church pumpkin patch. Both of you were very excited to help.

 Especially with the cutting. Hannah just kept stabbing the pumpkin. Poor pumpkin. Both of you were not interested in touching the insides or pulling any of the "icky stuff" out. Grandma and grandpa ended up doing that part of the work and then at some point, Hannah, you wandered off to do your thing. 

 Nathan decided to carve a transformer logo, but found it to be tough. So, I ended up doing the cutting,

 and you pulled out the pieces.

 Hannah asked grandpa to make a spooky castle. So in the end, here were the final products.

It was a busy weekend and I was glad to be able to just stay home with Hailey this morning. Hailey is now sleeping about 15 hours a day, waking up 2 times a night, sleeping for about 2-3 hours before waking up to eat. For awhile, she was waking up 10 minutes after I would put her down, crying in gassy pain, which then took another hour to calm her and get her back asleep. I finally figured out that I needed to just walk around and burp her for about 10 minutes before putting her down and this increased the chances of her staying asleep.

People often ask how I am doing. I think physically, things are as good as they can be with a newborn. Emotionally, I'm better than I was with Nathan or Hannah. What I'm struggling most with is being ok with getting things completed in phases. Normally I am the type to get something completed. I really don't like "loose ends."  But lately, I'm finding that I just have to walk away and come back to it later.

Which reminds me of this...

I still have not made much progress due to the carpal tunnel in my fingers. Anytime I work on this more than 10 minutes, my fingers start to go numb. Now we have #3 to make. This time I wised up and I've already solicited help from grandma for Hailey's stocking. (She will probably finish it before I finish Hannah's) So, hopefully by next Christmas, I'll have this one completed.
...sigh...

Well, we actually have a pretty exciting weekend coming up. You'll have to wait until next week to find out about it.

Until then,
Love,
Mommy